Conventionally, various types of cleaning apparatuses and cleaning methods have been known that clean a chuck such as the holding member where a plurality of substrates such as semiconductor wafers are held and transferred. See, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-101524.
The cleaning apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-101524 is equipped with a two-fluid supply nozzle that sprays a gas such as N2 gas along with a cleaning liquid such as a deionized water toward the holding grooves of the holding member such as a chuck, and a cleaning liquid supply nozzle that sprays the cleaning liquid toward a side surface of the holding member. An air cylinder is installed in the cleaning apparatus that moves the two-fluid supply nozzle and cleaning liquid supply nozzle along with the longitudinal direction of the holding member. In particular, in the cleaning apparatus of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-101524, the two-fluid supply nozzle sprays deionized water and N2 gas toward the holding grooves earlier than the cleaning liquid supply nozzle sprays the cleaning liquid, by the operation of the air cylinder. Moreover, the cleaning apparatus of Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2005-101524 is equipped with a gas supply nozzle that sprays the gas toward the holding member. The gas supply nozzle is also configured to be moved along the longitudinal direction of the holding member. Also, after a cleaning process is performed for the holding member by spraying the cleaning liquid from the two-fluid supply nozzle or from the cleaning liquid supply nozzle, a dry out process for the holding member is performed by spraying the gas from the gas supply nozzle toward the holding member.
However, in the conventional cleaning apparatus as illustrated in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2005-101524, droplets of the cleaning liquid may be adhered to the rear-end unit (a source portion) of the holding member, when the two fluid supply nozzle or the cleaning liquid supply nozzle sprays the cleaning liquid to the holding member. The attached droplets of the cleaning liquid at the rear-end unit of the holding member may not be eliminated completely by a gas spray from the gas supply nozzle. As a result, because of the remaining droplets of the cleaning liquid, the rear-end unit of the holding member may not be dried out sufficiently.